October 14, 2011

Is This Worrisome? A Baby, an iPad, and a Magazine

It is symbolizes the problem I see with the future of language and the acceptance of Twitter-speak/spelling as the norm. Increasingly, I am receiving e-mails that are in the Twit style. And I can see future writers saying, “If it isn’t wrong according to spellcheck, then it must not be wrong!”

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I think this has a little to do with the rest of the environment. My 2 year old loves my iPad but he also understands a book or magazine. He flips though the pages, says the words, letters and images he recognizes and askes us what the others are. We teach him about printed material and how you can get information from paper. He does not treat the magazine as an “iPad that does not work”.

Modes of interaction and the language of communication are determined by the general public, not by the Queen and not by editors. It’s not at all worrisome: it’s the way things have always been. (The OED adds new words as they find them showing up in the world; they don’t just arbitrarily make new words up and tell the world to start using them.) The job of the editor will change over time, to track the way the world really is. Embrace the new, and learn to use it to your advantage. ;)

[…] use print material when she’s older? Did Steve Jobs really code her OS? The author of a short post on American Editor finds it worrisome for another reason: It symbolizes the problem I see with the future of language […]